The MataBlog is edited by Matador Records’ co-moaner Gerard Cosloy and individual entries are the work of whoever’s name is next to them. If you enjoyed something in the MataBlog, thank you very much! If there was something you found particularly troubling, please be advised that a) maybe you should read it again and b) the contents of this blog do not necessarily represent the opinions of Matador Records, Beggars Group, the combined staff of either company, nor the Matador artist roster. Opinions are like friends — hardly anyone has one worth listening to.

SUMMER IS HERE!...ok well it officially starts tomorrow but we can't contain our excitement so we're getting started a day early. Ahhh Summer, the season of extended daylight, backyard BBQs, road trips with friends, summer playlists, and Tanlines + Lemonade of course.

Apologies for that simple and obvious play on words. But honestly as sure as you're likely to have some tan lines after laying around the pool drinking a glass of lemonade this summer, we're convinced both bands (Tanlines and Lemonade) will be on your iPods/stereos while doing so. But don't take our word for it, Creator's Project said that Tanlines are "destined to become your summer soundtrack", and New York Magazine, Stereogum, and Refinery 29 couldn't agree more, naming "All Of Me" one of their Songs Of The Summer.

Anyhow since we'll be spending all summer together, it's probably a good time to get to know your Tanlines better. Courtesy of Creator's Project, click HERE for an intimate look at the band Tanlines, their recording process, how they formed, and much much more.

Also Tanlines will be performing across the US all summer long, starting tomorrow night with an official summer kick off show at the House of Vans in Brooklyn. A full list of summer tour dates is below.

Toronto's Fucked Up have just finished recording their second album. It will come out on Matador worldwide on October 7. Entitled The Chemistry Of Common Life, it contains 11 tracks on the CD and 12 tracks on the double vinyl. This sprawling, multi-instrumental epic is "basically about rebirth and the Sun. And lightning," according to guitarist 10,000 Marbles. The sound is incredibly dense, featuring 10-15 guitar tracks on many songs, along with flutes, organs, and French horn, with an elegant clarity and sense of purpose. The record picks up where 2006's Hidden World left off, in terms of the band's characteristic monumentality, but injects a newfound urgency and unease which the mystical lyrical concerns only amplify.

As a preliminary to the album, Matador and What's Your Rupture? are co-releasing an expanded EP version of Fucked Up's Year Of The Pig single this July. It was originally released as a 12" single on What's Your Rupture? last year. More details here.

Hello. Tusk has a few tracks that predate introspective, 90’s indie rock. That’s Buckingham checking in with “Walk a Thin Line”….the obscenely catchy ballad that sounds like Built To Spill. Mother of All Saints also looked to the future, albeit a future that has yet to occur. Indie rock, or tastemaker rock, or cool shit, or whatever you want to call it, in 2007, SHOULD sound like Mother of All Saints. It doesn’t. Tusk has the ye olde photo of a pesky, perhaps feral dog tearing away at some unlucky chump’s trouser leg. Mother of All Saints has some mouth action, too, but it could pass for a Naked City cover or a later, “mature” offering from Suffocation. It must be noted that Thinking Fellers collectively had a much better sense of humor than John Zorn. Despite being one of the greatest (and weirdest) mainstream pop records of the payola era, the public felt otherwise and Tusk unwittingly helped to destroy the music industry as it was known in 1979. Its “ambitious” recording budget and efficient, non-stop journey from warehouse to cutout bin almost bankrupted Warner Brothers, and led to an industry-wide contract genocide that effectively ended many of the “careers” that resulted from the AOR signing frenzy of ’76 – ’79 (1). When I was nineteen, Mother of All Saints really alienated and disturbed the soon to be vanquished jam band acquaintances (2) that remained lurking in the tiers of my eight-count friend circle. Christ on a crutch, you’d think I was writing a 33 1/3 here, with all of the petty, “aw, me” nostalgia.

1. Which gave us the Babysitter Rock of 707, New England, Hotel, Sharks, Starz, Stank Business, Horselips, Starcastle, The Tarney-Spencer Band, and Trooper, bless their forgotten hearts.

2. Yes, jam banders existed in 1992. It was their choices that were few: Phish, Widespread Panic, Spin Doctors, and the Dead.

Bringing it back to the days of Maximum Rock n' Roll style DIY, yet keeping it current with today's (Rupert Murdoch-owned) technology, our good friends at Fenway Recordings have just shared the following amazing news regarding Mission of Burma's engagement at Eugene, Oregon's WOW Hall on Sunday, September 17 with 50 Foot Wave:

Mission of Burma recieved a message on Myspace a couple of weeks ago from a high school band called The Tunnel Kings. They stated that they were huge fans and would like to open for them for the 17th of Sept in their home town; Eugene, OR.

Roger Miller checked them out and liked what he heard. As of yesterday- the Tunnel Kings are confirmed. Here is the original email from The Tunnel Kings:

Hey,

My name is River Donaghey and my band, The Tunnel Kings (above), and I are huge fans. We're all sophmores in high school in Eugene, OR and we just noticed that you are heading down here for a show at the WOW Hall on September 17th. If there is any way you guys might consider letting us open for you, it would be a amazing opporitunity for the band. So go listen to our stuff and if you like what you hear throw me a message back.

Thanks!

River-----

The Tunnel Kings' Myspace site is at the following URL: www.myspace.com/thetunnelkings. Congratulations to River and his crew for taking the initiative!

According to New York Magazine (our personal style bible), this blog thing is really taking off. As you know, the management of Matador Records cannot resist any scheme that might either a) make us money or b) result in our selling half of the company again, so voila, it's THE MATABLOG.

ABOUT

The MataBlog is edited by Matador Records’ co-moaner Gerard Cosloy and individual entries are the work of whoever’s name is next to them. If you enjoyed something in the MataBlog, thank you very much! If there was something you found particularly troubling, please be advised that a) maybe you should read it again and b) the contents of this blog do not necessarily represent the opinions of Matador Records, Beggars Group, the combined staff of either company, nor the Matador artist roster. Opinions are like friends — hardly anyone has one worth listening to.